Monday, November 25, 2013

Phones, Facts, and Latkes

We have phones! It only took 8 days, a dozen or so phone
calls...all made on my cell phone which resulted in a certain Junior Son chiding
me on my reckless use of shared resources...and a really nice guy named James
who came on Sunday, precisely on time, and who, after examining phone jacks in
the house and the outside connection boxes, pronounced my situation bizarre at
best. Throwing his hands up in the air; he declared, "Let's go take a look
at the inside junction box. I have no other ideas."

Bingo. Hanging on the wall right above the junction box was
mysterious second modem. In short order, the offending box was removed, the
wires properly reconnected, and voilà! a miracle! All the phones rang! Now, I
am not a fan of Comcrap by any stretch of the imagination, but I am a fan of
James and his online counterparts in the great state of Washington, Janice and
Robert who went above and beyond to get this fixed much faster than the
expected November 27th date the repair calendar showed as the first
available date.

Life is slowly getting back to normal at Chez WP. Grandpa Sieg is
going up and down the stairs like a champ. The dog has stopped growling at the
walkers, and I've gone back to lobbing comments over the interwall at the NY
Times, Huffington Post and other news organs with greater regularity. I have to
confess there is a certain satisfaction in doing that, although these days, the
commenters seem more polarized than ever.

This bothers me but I’m not sure what bothers me more: the
vitriolic stridency or the extreme wing positions. This is a democracy and
there are going to be positions taken to which I am vehemently opposed. There
are going to be op/ed pieces, like Ross Douthat’s on JFK
this past weekend, that seem to defy logic and are just plain spiteful. But
just as I do not begrudge Donut’s right to opine, I do not begrudge anyone’s
right to agree or disagree with him. That’s not what it’s about. Or at least
what it’s supposed to be about. But some of the anger than comes through in the
comments! Oh, I suppose I occasionally set my hair on fire…Okay…I did ask if he
was functionally illiterate or just unable to discern between real life and
fiction. Even so, I don’t think I’m particularly vicious.

Y’know, watching all those documentaries about JFK this past week made
me nostalgic for a time when appearance was important. Looking at Mrs. Kennedy,
the black veil over her face, holding the hands of her children… her grace and
graciousness giving such dignity to our national tragedy, Watching it play out
over and over again, and knowing what we now know about JFK, the machinations
of his government, and all the rest, I still long for the façade of elegance, a
pretense of dignity, and moment of civility.

But that was a very different time. There were secrets in those
days. We no longer have that luxury. We have instant info-gratification. We can
fact check anything and everything, and heaven knows, there are cameras
everywhere. Hiding is no longer a viable option...just ask Mark
Sanford about that.

I keep hoping that our ability to fact-check will be turned toward
good, and stem the tide of spin and lies. I want a survey to report the raw
data, not the extrapolated opinion paid for by some PAC. I want politicians to
say, “Look, this is going to help my constituents,” and not worry about what
the big pockets will say. I want all this knowledge we have at our fingertips
to improve our lives, not give some hack a leg up in manipulating the truth.

In this way, I am neither Democrat nor Republican. I am not
Libertarian nor Socialist, nor any other kind of “ist.” I am one of We, the
People, and as we head into the next election cycle, I want the candidates to
just tell the truth about what is going to help and what is going to hurt…not
what the deep pockets tell them to say.

Right now, listening to the talking heads talk about which states
are working and which states are not, they’re saying Kentucky is doing really
well with ACA registration, much to the chagrin of their GOP congressclowns. I am of the opinion that the GOP is not
worried about ACA failing…because it won’t; they are worried that it is going
to succeed far beyond everyone’s expectations…and they’re going to end up
having to explain why they didn’t want regular people to get health insurance.

The
Wifely Person’s Tip o’the Week

Thursday is Thanksgiving and the first day of Chanukah.

Thanksgiving commemorates a shared feast between Native Americans
and Europeans.

Chanukah is about the usual Jewish non-harvest-related holiday
stuff –

LINGUA GALACTICA

DREAM DANCER

About Me

I am a widow, a mother, a mother-in-law, a daughter, a daughter-in-law, a grandmother, and I guess since I also have a grandpuppy, that makes me a grandbitch. On the other side of living, I'm playwright, director, and novelist. I have the requisite day job for insurance and steady taxable income. You can now like me on Facebook now, too - just put THE WIFELY PERSON in your search box! https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Wifely-Person/163546490391811 OR write to me at thewifelyperson@gmail.com